GARDENS OF ESTE AND GONZAGA PRINCES 
among many others which I have received from 
you.” 
Isabella was graciously pleased to accede to this 
urgent request and allowed her gardener to visit 
Cricoli, but took care to add that she hoped he 
would send back the man as soon as possible, since 
the garden at Porto was in great want of his services. 
A week later Trissino sent a grateful letter saying 
that “ the gardener’s arrival had been most oppor¬ 
tune in this rainy weather,” and that his advice had 
proved exceedingly profitable to the box trees of his 
garden, which were now in perfect order, for all 
of which he rendered her Excellency immortal 
thanks. 
“ And now,” he adds, “ I am sending the gardener 
back in order that Porto may not suffer by his 
absence.” 1 
To the last Isabella retained her keen sense of 
enjoyment and pleasure in planning buildings and 
gardens. She helped Giulio Romano with her advice 
in preparing the Palazzina, an elegant suite of rooms 
which was added to the Castello at the time of her 
son Federico’s wedding, and expressed the highest 
approval of the terraced garden and loggietta on the 
top of the roof, saying that she should have thought 
herself very fortunate if, when she first came to 
1 B. Morsolin, Giangiorgio Trissino , p. 493. 
6l 
